New files show that Margaret Thatcher wanted to stop Asian men from bringing second wives to the UK

Margaret Thatcher demanded a halt on Asian men bringing second wives into the country claiming the UK's immigration rules discriminated in favour of the "coloured Commonwealth", according to newly released government papers.


Files released by the National Archives show how in 1986, ministers in Mrs Thatcher's government were under pressure to prevent Pakistani and Bangladeshi women in polygamous marriages joining their husbands in the UK.

The then attorney general Sir Michael Havers had warned that any attempt to exclude the women concerned would be illegal without new legislation.


"I am very conscious of the fact that this is a highly explosive subject and that there is a need for early amendment of the law," he wrote.

"I must, however, advise in the strongest terms against taking any action against second wives until there is a change in the law. Such unlawful action by the government cannot be contemplated."

Mrs Thatcher, however, was adamant that action had to be taken and wrote back: "The country would be with us on this. We would be crazy to discriminate in favour of the coloured Commonwealth against the UK."

"The outcome of admitting more husbands and male fiances would mean that there would be more new families, large numbers on the unemployment register, and in the long run a requirement for the creation of more jobs," she complained.

"There were, furthermore, sufficient numbers in the ethnic minorities in this country now to provide an acceptable range of choice for young women without the need for further young men to come to this country."